|
| |
The Wood Brothers
Loaded
(Blue Note)
First Appeared in The Music Box, April 2008, Volume 15, #4
Written by John Metzger
Mon April 7, 2008, 06:45 AM CDT
Sophomore albums are never easy to make. On the one hand, a band needs to
adhere closely to whatever personality it initially had created for itself. At
the same time, though, a group also must move beyond its debut and demonstrate a
clear pattern of growth. Finding a balance between these two objectives,
however, is where most outfits go astray, and typically, guest musicians are
brought on board in an attempt to cover the struggling act’s awkward missteps
and deficiencies.
At first glance, The Wood Brothers’ Loaded gives the appearance of
following this blueprint precisely. John Medeski, who produced the ensemble’s
debut Ways Not to Lose, has taken the helm once again. Likewise, the duo
of Chris and Oliver Wood tapped a slew of friends — drummer Billy Martin and
violinist David Mansfield as well as vocalists Frazey Ford, Pieta Brown, and
Amos Lee — for assistance. Fortunately, Oliver Wood’s rapidly maturing vocal
style — he often sounds, now, as if he is conjuring Van Morrison rather than
Bill Withers — lends the outing tremendous gravity. The result is that Loaded
is anything but a textbook recording.
A year ago, The Wood Brothers’ mother succumbed to Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Although not all of Loaded’s songs deal directly with her death, the
effect that it had upon the siblings weighs quite heavily upon the entirety of
the endeavor. Set against a backdrop of quietly ruminative music that recalls
the ragged, folk-and-soul style of The Band, opening track Lovin’ Arms is
an expression of Chris and Oliver Wood’s misery over her passing. Don’t Look
Back is a hushed, mournful dirge that serves as a beautiful, touching
goodbye. Framed by an atmospheric and spooky, Southern-fried, blues-based
arrangement, Twisted is an attempt to cope with their misdirected guilt,
and the weary yearning that fills Still Close rounds out the collection
as the brothers take bittersweet comfort in the memories that remain with them.
Without question, then, Loaded is a deeply personal album, and this is
why the trio of cover songs, which are delivered in succession near the final
moments of the set, prove to be detrimental to the endeavor. There’s no doubt
that Jimi Hendrix’s Angel, Bob Dylan’s Buckets of Rain, and the
traditional Make Me Down a Pallet on Your Floor all serve the prevailing
mood and theme of the recording. Yet, although they are rendered admirably, they
also are so well known that they have the unfortunate effect of scuttling all of
the intimacy that The Wood Brothers so carefully had created prior to this
point. This lapse in judgment might have been made with the best of intentions,
or it could have been a subconscious way for the duo to mask how revealing the
rest of the affair is. While the move doesn’t derail Loaded completely,
it does temper its impact enough to keep a good outing from being a great one.  ½
Loaded is available from Amazon.com.
To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
Click Here!
For UK orders, please
Click Here!
Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2008 The Music Box
|
